Let's establish a timeline here:
Submitted manuscript for a historical erotic romance January 2013. At the time, they wanted the first three chapters and a synopsis.
I got a request from an editor for the whole manuscript in July 2013.
Offered a contract on my historical September 2013.
A few months passed, Didn't hear anything again until I was sent paperwork and contract December 3rd I asked about the editing timeline and was told by the editor since the book has a Christmas theme, the release would be later in the fall of 2014, but she would be in contact soon to do edits, they would be done this spring.
In January 2014, I submitted another historical. Got a contract offer in March 2014. I was dealing with my father's sudden illness and subsequent passing, so me accepting the contract was put on hold. Editor said that was fine. Asked about edits on Xmas story, no response. Sent another email, no response.
May 2014 news went public about late payments and the publishers response they had software issues. I held off accepting the contract.
June 2014 I withdrew my historical manuscript for consideration and asked again about edits. No response at all.
August 2014 I get an email from the editor she sent to all her authors stating her services were no longer required from Ellora's Cave. She would be wrapping up her work on stories already in the editing process in two weeks.
Week later: Publisher states all unfinished books under contract will be placed in an editing pool and there will be no way to predict or estimate when books will get worked on.
Publisher goes public stating sales are down 75% at Amazon and staff and other cuts are being made.
I send email to publisher asking for rights back since the book has never been edited or no cover art issued. I am sent a two sentence response that started out as 'dear author' and told to send my request to contracts. Obviously this email has been sent to a whole lot of people.
I did so and received an auto response saying they are overwhelmed with emails and they hope to respond in two months.
Thus endeth my non-adventure with Ellora's Cave. This did not meet my hopes and expectations in signing a contract with this epub. What are my options? I will explore them. I will update if and when I hear anything.
In the meantime, I have moved on. I wish any authors at EC all the best. Also the editors and any staff being released.
*Ironic Note* this historical under contract with EC was also caught in the Silver Publishing debacle. Maybe its cursed.
UPDATE: Well, I received edits from the editor. Looks like the book is going to be released with EC. When? No idea. The saga continues.
FURTHER UPDATE: 9/11- I see the book is on the coming soon page with a release date of December 24th. One round of edits is all this got. No cover art yet. I was not told of this release date.
RECENT UPDATE: Manscript I withdrew was accepted by Kensington Publishing. Release Sept 1 2015,
